1. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to instant messaging, and more specifically relates to a system and method for confirming the recipient of instant messaging (IM) communication before the message is sent.
2. Related Art
There exist various instant messaging (IM) systems that allow co-workers, friends, etc., to converse with each other for business and social reasons in real-time. AOL™, MSN™, and YAHOO™ provide some of the more commonly used IM programs. For the most part, these IM programs are consistent in the way that users input and send information, add contacts to their contact lists, etc. Many of the programs provide users with the technology to create communities in which they can choose to engage in public chats with people whom they have never met, but share an interest.
One of the challenges with such a real-time communication system is that confidential or highly sensitive information could be inadvertently sent to the wrong contact. This can occur when, e.g., the sending party mistakenly selects the wrong contact to receive the sensitive information. This is particularly prone to occur in IM systems because users may be communicating with multiple contacts at the same time, and contacts are generally identified by a contact name or nickname that may be different from their actual name.
Accordingly, a need exists for a system that would give the sending user an opportunity to confirm the identity of a contact before the message is sent.